


a veil falls away (without a sound)

by FullmetalChords



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fire Emblem Fusion, Just Add Ninjas, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Politics, Royalty, You Are the Ocean's Gay Waves, it's feif revelations but without anankos or valla or azura so really not like feif at all, ninja yuuri, nohr prince victor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-20 20:26:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14901416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FullmetalChords/pseuds/FullmetalChords
Summary: Sheltered prince Victor has only known a life in Nohr with his brother Yuri. When he is captured and taken to the warring kingdom of Hoshido, he learns a truth that will change the course of history forever.(An AUveryloosely based on Fire Emblem: Fates)





	a veil falls away (without a sound)

**Author's Note:**

> Even though this uses the worldbuilding, class system, and some backstory from Fire Emblem: Fates, no knowledge of the game is necessary to read or understand this. It's going to deviate a lot from the game's story after this first chapter anyway. 
> 
> also, for the record, this was going to be much shorter and sappier but then my dumb brain decided, _what if we wrote a massive political war epic instead of c/ping support sets_

The world beyond his tower is a mystery.

Victor, prince of Nohr, has been sealed away in a fortress for most of his life in a remote, freezing part of the kingdom. For his safety, they say. Nohr has been embroiled in a bitter war with the neighboring country of Hoshido for the past twenty years; there is no telling what might happen should the enemy get its hands on him.

He has been expressly forbidden from setting foot outside the tower, but this does not mean he is entirely alone. His brother Yuri comes to visit weekly, bringing news from the front and training by his side — Victor with the sword, Yuri with his divine tome Brynhildr.

When Yuri is not visiting, Victor’s faithful war hound Makkachin is never far from his side as he trains, romping alongside Victor like war is all some merry game to her. And of course, Victor has his faithful servants: his butler Chris and Yakov, a former lieutenant in his father’s army who left the front to guard Victor. They are almost more like family than Yuri is, always by his side, teaching him the ways of battle and diplomacy in the event that his father will ever permit him to leave his sanctuary.

Yet Victor cannot help but find himself… isolated, set apart from his closest friends by his status — which is nonsensical, he often has to remind himself, since Yuri is a prince just like him. He often finds himself listless, lonesome, aimlessly wandering the halls of his glorified prison in search of something he cannot name. All too often Victor catches himself looking longingly out his window, across the black forests of Nohr, hoping for a hint of sunlight.

He feels something inside his very soul calling, beckoning, beseeching the world to set him free.

—

His call is finally, miraculously, answered in midwinter, when his father summons him to the capital for the very first time.

Victor already knows, without being told, that it is not a social call. Whatever he is being let loose for is a trial that he has no option but to face head-on.

In the throne room at Castle Krakenburg, he is confronted with his crucible.

“Prince Victor,” his father greets. He does not get up from his throne; his voice is cold and impartial. Victor instinctively kneels.

“Father.”

“Prince Yuri has reported to me the strides you have made in your training,” says the king, and Victor cannot help but glance over at Yuri. His little brother stands at the edge of the room, statue-like, his face devoid of the emotions he wears on his sleeve whenever he and Victor are alone. “He says that in time, your abilities on the battlefield may even surpass those of Crown Prince Nikolai.”

Victor’s eyes widen. _Wow_. Really? “Prince Yuri is… generous.” It is strange, hearing Nikolai’s name spoken so casually. Victor never had the opportunity to meet the crown prince, legendary for his prowess with the sword, since he died in battle in the first year of the war. He has asked Yuri, several times, to know more of their late brother, but Yuri has always refused to speak of him.

(“He was alive, and now he’s dead,” Yuri had spat, the last time Victor had asked. “You’ll be the same, if you don’t keep your guard up on the battlefield. Now don’t ask me again!”)

Still genuflecting before him, Victor chances a glance up at the man he calls “father”, even though up to this point, their main points of contact have been through official missives sent to his fortress, or news delivered to him by Yuri. Seeing him now… the king is a big man, imposing. His fingers play casually over the hilt of his massive battle axe as he studies Victor.

“Naturally,” the king says, “upon hearing his reports, I decided to have you brought here, so I might see your talents for myself.”

He snaps his fingers, and the guards at the corner of the room slip out a side door. They emerge only moments later, each leading a manacled prisoner behind them.

“These Hoshidans were caught trespassing over our borders,” says his father as the guards shove the prisoners to their knees. “They must, of course, be dealt with accordingly.”

“Of course,” Victor echoes, pasting on a smile, though inside he is shaking.He has to fight the urge to play with the end of his long silver braid, as he often does when nervous. This is his very first real test as a prince of Nohr; failing to deliver — or worse, showing weakness in front of his father — would be worse than death.

There are only two prisoners, both weakened from combat in the ongoing war. One, a club-wielder with bleached hair that is dark at the roots, glares up at him defiantly from her place on her knees, as though determined to hate him to her last breath.

The second…

His garb gives him away as a ninja, shuriken abandoned at his feet. He does not seem afraid or angry; rather, he is accepting of whatever his fate may be. His gaze is steady with Victor’s own, which makes the prince swallow, tightening his grip on his newly gifted sword.

“Father,” he manages, looking up at the king, “they have been defeated. Surely it is not honorable—“

“You dare not to follow orders?” His father sneers at him. “Do as I command, Prince Victor! Kill them!”

 _Gods_. Victor looks back at the two Hoshidan prisoners, at the way the ninja’s expression has suddenly turned white with shock, and fears he lacks the stomach to do what he has been ordered to.

An irritated huff from Yuri’s side of the room. “Stand aside, brother.”

The distinctive chime of magic rings through the air, and a tree made of light materializes to knock both prisoners to the ground, where they lie still. Victor can’t help but jump at the presence of Brynhildr’s magic, turning at the spot to gape at his younger brother.

“Y-Yura!”

The mystical tree fades back into nothingness as the mage closes his divine tome, his expression impassive. “Please forgive my softhearted brother,” Yuri says, voice cold as he speaks to their father. “I have done what he could not.”

Their father remains unimpressed.

“Now dispose of them, Victor. Forcing a child to fulfill your duty for you… you are a disgrace.”

The king sweeps from the dungeon, long mink cape trailing behind him. Victor turns to the still forms of the prisoners, in shock over what his brother has done, feeling sick at his failure to obey. His hands are still shaking.

“Relax.” He turns to see Yuri watching him, the two of them alone but for the Hoshidans. “They’ll be all right in a few hours. My magic knocked them out, that’s all. I knew you’d make a fuss if I’d killed them.”

Victor sags with relief. “Little brother,” he says, about to voice his thanks when he notices— “…Your collar is inside out.”

Yuri swears, reaching up to grab at the high collar of his cape. “In front of Father? _Gods!_ Why the hell didn’t you say something?”

He dashes off to fix himself while Victor walks over to the Hoshidans, who are stirring faintly but still unconscious.

With some effort, he hauls them both onto a cart and sets off for a potter’s field, where he’s been ordered to dump their corpses. By that time, both prisoners are showing more signs of life, though they remain supine in the cart, evidently aware that sitting up will set off more alarms than they need.

“This is as far as I can take you,” Victor says by way of apology as he stops the cart. “Sorry about—“

The woman leaps out of the cart, landing neatly on her feet.

“Save it,” she hisses. “I’d rather be dead than in debt to a Nohrian.”

She spits at his feet before dashing off into the darkness, leaving the ninja behind her. Victor turns to face him, feeling somewhat disheartened.

“Well,” he ventures, trying to make a joke, “ _she’s_ lovely.”

The ninja does not crack a smile. Instead, those dark eyes keep studying him, making Victor’s insides twist. He’s suddenly aware that this is the first ninja he’s ever seen, and he doesn’t know what to expect. Is he looking for a weakness? Ready to attack him in retaliation for his own capture?

“…Prince Victor of Nohr,” the ninja finally says. His voice is softer than Victor had been imagining.

“Y-yes?”

A Wolfskin howls in the distance, distracting Victor for only a moment; but when he looks back, the ninja has disappeared completely.

“Dusk,” he swears, leaning back on the cart, his breath shallow in his chest.

He’d never known ninja could be so _cool_.

—

The second time they meet, their situations have been reversed.

Victor had known, following his failure to execute the Hoshidan prisoners, that his father would be searching for a suitable punishment for him. And so when his father orders him to inspect an abandoned fortress near the border without help from his brother, Victor can only presume his punishment is to perform menial tasks for the good of the Nohrian army. The same way Yakov used to make him muck out the horse stalls whenever he slacked off in his studies.

He is not alone; he has Yakov there for his protection, and Chris is no slouch when he has a dagger in his hands. But when they come to the border fortress and find it very much _not_ abandoned, but instead occupied by Hoshidan soldiers who attack him on sight, Victor knows immediately that someone has set a trap for him.

The only question is who had set it.

They separate him too quickly from Chris and Yakov in the thick of battle, their numbers overwhelming the three of them, until Victor is almost certain he is the only one left standing. The crowd parts, and their leader stands before him—

—It is the ninja from the dungeon in Nohr.

Victor opens his mouth to speak, to say anything… but he is too quickly cut off by a sharp blow to the back of the head. A Hoshidan warrior with a club.

“Mari!” Victor thinks he hears the ninja cry, indignant…

…And then, darkness.

—

They bring him before the queen of Hoshido, not chained, but a prisoner nonetheless.

The queen — Exalt Kacha — sits high upon her throne as she looks down at him, golden headpiece atop a head of thick silver hair. Victor is afraid, though holds his head high, standing proudly. Whatever torture the Hoshidans have in mind for him before his execution, he will die as a prince of Nohr.

He expects pain, he expects judgment, he expects death.

He absolutely does not expect the queen of Hoshido to leave her throne and embrace him, sobbing his name and welcoming him home.

“My sweet boy,” she says, holding onto him as though afraid to ever let him go. “My Vicchan… oh gods! I feared I would never meet you again in this life…!”

“Wh…”

Victor cannot move from the shock of it, though after a few moments he wrestles out of her grip.

“What are you… talking about?” he manages. “Your ‘sweet boy’? _Vicchan_?! You must have me mistaken for someone else. I am Victor, prince of Nohr!”

The queen’s face falls.

“Oh, gods.” She presses a hand to her mouth delicately. “You… don’t you remember?”

Victor simply gapes. “Remember what?”

—

The palace gardens at Castle Shirasagi are beautiful.

Spring in Hoshido is nothing like spring in Nohr, which is dark and cold and nearly indistinguishable from winter. Here, the air is warm, and the gardens are full of flowers of every color, fully blooming in the bright sun. The trees lining the stone walkways burst with white-pink blossoms, filling the air with a delicate fragrance. In the center of the garden there is a small pond, its waters still and clear beneath the blue skies of Hoshido.

Victor dips his bare toes into the edge of the water, watching it ripple outward. It has been several hours since his arrival at the palace, and he still feels… numb. He keeps turning the queen’s words over in his mind, trying to make sense of them.

“You are Prince Victor of Hoshido,” she had told him. “My only son. You were taken from us by the Nohrians many years ago. You were so young when you were kidnapped, but… I’d never dreamed that you would forget me entirely…”

The poor woman had seemed so heartbroken that Victor almost wishes he _does_ remember her. Pressing his hands to his eyes, Victor strains to remember something, anything, of the woman calling herself his mother. Memories from his early childhood have always been… fuzzy, at best, as though being viewed from deep underwater. He can remember the scent of jasmine, the warm feeling of sun on his skin, a strong arm scooping him up to carry him.

The queen does smell of jasmine, he can’t help but remind himself. Not to mention her face… There is nothing familiar about it, but he supposes he can see how they might be related. He groans faintly, still struggling to process what is happening.

There is the sound of footsteps just behind him and Victor can’t help but turn, reaching for a sword at his waist that is not there.

As it turns out, he doesn’t need his weapon. A young woman stands before him, her brown hair pulled back from her face, looking wild and windswept, her eyes wide as she takes him in.

“Mother told me that— but I didn’t want to—“ She presses her palms together as though praying, holding them before her lips. “Oh, gods. It really is you!”

“Uh…”

Unlike the queen, this woman does not attempt to embrace him, but her eyes are soon swimming with tears. Victor feels compelled to come closer, hands hovering as he tries to think of a way to offer her comfort. He’s always been _terrible_ when people cry around him.

“It’s me,” he says cautiously, trying to think of who this woman might be. Her face is completely unfamiliar, but he racks his brain, trying to think of what he’s been taught of the Hoshidan royal family. “…High Princess Yuuko?” he finally ventures.

She stiffens a little at the formality of the title, but she nods feverishly all the same.

“I spent my whole life searching for you after you were taken,” she tells him through her tears, trying in vain to wipe them away even as they keep falling. “I trained every day, hoping I’d be strong enough to take on Nohr and demand your safe return. Mother… Mother said you were dead, that the Nohrians had killed you just like they did Father and Suzu, but I…” She sniffles mightily before offering him a smile. “I never lost hope that I’d find you one day.”

“I…” It feels almost cruel, in the face of the high princess’s grief, to tell her that she is a stranger to him, but Victor cannot keep silent. “High Pr- Yuuko, I…”

“I know,” Yuuko says, still scrubbing her face, nodding fiercely to cut him off. “I know you don’t remember me. Mother told me. But I… I had to see for myself that you really have returned to us.”

He has a _sister_. It’s a startling thought — made stranger still by the fact that Yuuko looks nothing at all like him — and yet it makes Victor smile. 

“My sister,” he repeats to himself, in wonder, and Yuuko grins back, blinking away the last of her tears. “Sister— wow! This… this is all just so much to take in. I never knew… Back in Nohr, I only really had my brother, so finding out—“

“He’s _not_ your brother!” The sudden ferocity Yuuko speaks with shocks him, the smile sliding right off Victor’s face. Then the high princess softens. “Your real family has always been here, in Hoshido,” she tells him. “I know it may take you some time to adjust to your life here.” She offers him a sweet smile. “I’ll give you all the space you need, dear brother.”

She turns to go, and Victor can only watch her, mutely, feeling no better than he had before she’d arrived.

“Thanks,” he mutters when she’s well out of earshot, and then sighs mightily, collapsing on a bench at the edge of the pond.

Yuuko’s words still linger, picking at his brain. He looks around, trying to imagine growing up here, calling this place home. Hoshido is beautiful, of course, but… he thinks of Nohr, of its dark austerity, and cannot help but feel a pang of longing for it. And the fact that Yuuko had used the word _real — your real family —_ he cannot comprehend what makes Yuuko more real than Yuri is.

How is it possible that he knows nothing of this place, of these people? How can he not even hold the faintest memory of being kidnapped?

Nohr…

If Victor truly is a prince of Hoshido… well, that puts quite a different context on his life in the fortress, forbidden from ever leaving. His home, his sanctuary, had always been meant to be a prison. And Victor’s thoughts can’t help but drift back home to Yakov, to Chris, to Yuri. Had… had they known all along? That he’d been kidnapped, that he was a prisoner, that he was the prince of their enemy? If that was so, what had they to gain by treating him like a member of the Nohrian royal family?

Why would they have bothered at all with their kindness at all, if all he’d been all along was a chip to be traded away in this unending war?

The truth weighs so heavily on Victor’s mind and heart that he almost does not hear a rustling in one of the trees behind him. The sound startles him out of his thoughts, making him whirl on the spot.

“Who’s there?” he demands, hastily wiping his eyes. “Show yourself!”

There is no response at first. But then…

A human-sized shadow drops from the branches of one of the cherry trees, remaining stooped before him.

“Um,” says the shadow, his voice soft. “Hi.”

Victor’s eyes widen in recognition. “You,” he says. The ninja from Nohr. The one who brought him here. His appearance triggers the anger that has been building in him ever since he learned the truth of his origins.

“You knew all along who I was!” Victor accuses, lashing out at the ninja since his true targets are nowhere to be found. “Didn’t you?”

“Of course I knew.” The ninja’s eyes are fixed deferentially on the ground. “Even before the Nohrian king said your name. I… I recognized you immediately, Lord Victor.”

Victor clenches his jaw. “And you didn’t think to—!”

“Would you have believed me?” the ninja interrupts swiftly, and Victor falls silent. “A soldier from an enemy kingdom, telling you everything you’ve known is a lie?”

Victor deflates. “No,” he admits, and slumps back on the bench. “I guess not.” After all, he barely believes it from his own mother and sister.

The ninja remains silent, still crouched on the ground at the base of the cherry tree. His fall has disrupted the branches, dislodging the delicate blossoms that now float gently in the breeze, pink petals blowing around them both. Victor has never seen this man in the light before, and now that he has a chance, he sees that the ninja is…

Well… he’s nothing short of beautiful.

He has a round, kind-looking face, dark hair gathered to one side in a short ponytail. The ninja is dressed simply, a royal blue scarf slung around his neck, dark tunic cut low enough that his breastbone is exposed. And those eyes… Victor remembers when they’d first met, how the ninja had held his gaze, dark eyes boring into his very soul. He remembers how that gaze had captivated him, how bold and direct it had been, how intrigued he’d been by it.

The ninja’s eyes are now firmly fixed on the ground, almost stubbornly, like the ninja is reluctant to acknowledge he and Victor are taking part in a conversation at all.

“Um…” The ninja breaks the silence. “I would apologize, for the way my sister treated you when we brought you here. She was still angry at her treatment by the Nohrians and did not realize who you were as quickly as she should have.”

Victor shakes his head, waving it away. “I’ve gotten worse lumps from my broth— um… I mean, Prince Yuri,” he backtracks, unsure if the ninja will be as angry as High Princess Yuuko was if he claims Yuri as his brother. If he is, he at least doesn’t seem to show it.

The ninja nods, then bows deeply. “Then I shall leave you in peace. Um… I will still be nearby, should you need protection. But I imagine you would prefer some space to think.” He starts to retreat back into the brush, but Victor stops him.

“What’s your name?”

The ninja jumps as though he hadn’t been expecting the question.

“Yuuri,” he says after only a brief hesitation. “Is my name.”

“Yuuri,” Victor repeats to himself, tickled by the similarity with his own brother’s name. “Yuuri,” he says again, addressing the ninja, and is interested to see how Yuuri’s ears turn red as he addresses him directly, “you don’t have to leave, you know. Truth be told, I… I think I could use the company.”

The last thing he thinks he needs right now is to be alone with his thoughts. Living in isolation back at the fortress, it’s something he’s unfortunately all too familiar with, and right now there is so much weighing on him that he is afraid of the poisonous results time alone might bring him.

He sees Yuuri’s throat bob, sees those dark eyes dart in his direction as Yuuri apparently considers Victor’s request.

“I…” Yuuri inhales, then straightens. “Are you familiar with the game of shogi, Lord Victor?”

The name is completely unfamiliar to him, but just the fact that Yuuri is willing to keep him company and allow him to forget his current predicament is enough to make Victor smile.

“I’m not, Yuuri. Please teach me.”

—

The days that pass at Castle Shirasagi are relatively peaceful.

True to their word, High Princess Yuuko and the queen give Victor his space, although he begins to at least seek Yuuko out to get them better acquainted. They avoid talk of the war, of his kidnapping; instead, the High Princess tells him of her hobbies and teaches him about life in Hoshido, keeping conversation between them light.

The highlight of Victor’s days in Hoshido are his daily shogi games with Yuuri. They put him in mind of hundreds of similar games of chess he’d shared with his brother Yuri back at the northern fortress, which is a comforting thought.

Yuuri is a good teacher, showing him the basics of the game and often being kind enough to tell him when he’s making a foolish move with one of his tiles.

He is also, unfortunately for Victor, absolutely unbeatable at shogi.

“I’m sorry,” Yuuri says after the fifth day and Victor’s thirteenth humiliating defeat. “I’m being rude, aren’t I? I’ll go easier on you this round.”

“Don’t you dare,” Victor says, flashing him a grin. “It’s so much more fun when you give it your all.”

He has only been in Hoshido for a week or so, but Victor is already, slowly, starting to feel more at home here. Hoshido is a beautiful land, and the people he’s spent time with are all kind and peaceful — the opposite of the harsh ruthlessness of many of the Nohrian people.

And yet…

Victor often catches himself thinking longingly of Nohr, of his friends back at the fortress, of his dog who is almost certainly incredibly lonely without him. Nohr is a land without light, without life… but it has not, he supposes, been entirely without love. Nohrians are a hard people, but Yuri, Yakov, and Chris showed him incredible love and kindness when he was there. His brother, his friends… They are the only family he knows, and the dismal fortress by the northern border his only home. It is tempting to abandon such a dead country for the paradise Hoshido appears to be, and yet…

And yet, it feels nowhere near so simple.

This is not helped by the fact that his mother and Yuuko seem convinced that Victor is back in Hoshido to stay, when he is not at all certain this is true. If anything, this ordeal has made it all the more clear to Victor that he has no idea where his true place might be, whether it is in Hoshido or in Nohr.

Then one morning in early April, it begins to snow in Hoshido, the sky darkening over Castle Shirasagi.

The Nohrian army has crossed their border.

—

He rides out with Yuuko’s army to meet them.

Victor supposes things could not remain peaceful in Hoshido for long, not once it was made known that a Nohrian prince was being held in the palace. His little brother leads an army into Hoshido to bring him back; Yuuko leads her own to face it, ready to defend her family and her homeland.

“Victor!” he can hear Yuri shouting as Victor approaches the front lines. “Victor, come out! Do you hear me?!”

“Oh, hi Yuri!” Victor says, keeping his voice light and breezy as he slips between two Hoshidan samurai to emerge at the front lines, facing his brother. He can feel the tension in the air, the two armies and their lust for one another’s blood, and he hopes that if he can just smile broadly enough, be charming enough, he can calm everyone down somehow. “What brings you all the way to Hoshido?”

“Victor, you _idiot_.” He has never seen his little brother in full armor before; though he is young, he cuts an imposing figure in his jet-black armor, sitting astride his horse Potya, Brynhildr’s indigo cover clearly visible under his arm. “What do you _think_ I’m here for? I’m taking you back to Nohr, now! We’re going home!”

“He already is home!” says a voice behind him. Victor turns just in time to see Yuuko swoop in on her pegasus, pointing a divine naginata wreathed in lightning directly at Yuri. “I won’t have you Nohrian scum continue lying to him!”

Yuri scoffs.

“Come on, Victor,” he says, and runs his fingers along the spine of Brynhildr, gathering a ball of shadowy magical energy in his palm. “Let’s show the Hoshidans what happens when you cross Nohr.”

“Don’t let the Nohrians fool you, big brother,” Yuuko says, grip tightening on her naginata; the weapon begins to glow, lightning surging along the blade.

“He’s _my_ brother!” Victor is almost surprised at how distressed Yuri sounds. “Not yours! Hoshidan trash!”

The magic in his palms is set loose, a ray of shadows firing directly at Yuuko—

—And Victor instinctively puts himself between it, holding up his sword like he can parry dark magic. Yuri’s attack hits him with full force, but Victor has built up plenty of resistance to Yuri’s magic after years of sparring together, and he is still standing by the time it passes.

“Yura, Yuuko!” he tells them, sword still aloft. “Stop this! Put down your weapons!”

They are both surprised enough to obey. Victor looks between them anxiously; he still isn’t sure what he’s about to do is the right choice, but he cannot fathom doing anything else.

“Um… all right,” he says, still keeping his voice light and breezy. “Let’s just sit down somewhere and try to talk this out, shall we?”

“There’s nothing to talk out, Victor,” Yuuko tells him; the point of her naginata is no longer so close to Yuri’s throat, though she has by no means put it away. “They kidnapped you once. I won’t let them do it again.”

“ _We_ kidnapped him?” Yuri scoffs. “That’s funny. I have word from a Nohrian lieutenant that says _you_ kidnapped him when he was at the border.”

“Yakov’s all right?” Victor asks, his ears perking up at hearing his teacher’s rank, but neither of them seem to hear him.

“You scum stole him from us when you killed my father!” Victor can hear electricity crackling as Yuuko’s grip on her weapon tightens once more. “Don’t deny it!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Yuri’s horse bucks, sensing his rider’s aggravation. “Just give my brother back!”

“He’s _not your_ —“

“Please!” Victor shouts, and this time they both stare at him. Victor sighs.

“Yura, I’m sorry,” he tells his brother. “High Princess Yuuko is telling the truth. I was born in Hoshido; my birth family lives here. I… I can’t go with you, knowing I’ll be made to fight against my own people.”

Yuri stares at him in horror, while Yuuko says, hopeful, “Then, Victor…?”

“And Yuuko,” Victor says, turning to her now. “Prince Yuri might not be my blood, but he’s still my brother, just like you’re my sister. Nohr is the only home I’ve known. I… I won’t raise my sword against it.”

Even atop his warhorse, wearing his full suit of armor, Yuri looks small, like a child playing at war. “So… so you’re saying…”

“I won’t side with either of you in this war,” Victor says firmly, meeting both their eyes in turn. “So… let’s put away our weapons, shall we? And find some way to make peace.”

His brother and sister only stare at him for a moment in mute shock. Then—

“Fuck that,” Yuri says, gripping Brynhildr’s spine all the more tightly, letting the shadowy magic surge down his arm.

“How can you ask me to make peace with them?” Yuuko demands, her own weapon glowing white and hot. “After what they did to our father? Our brother?”

“Our what?” Victor asks, dumbfounded, but Yuri interrupts.

“Their prince _butchered_ Nika, Victor! How dare you ask me to just forgive that?”

“No!” Victor cries out, helpless, but his siblings are circling one another, clearly intent on destroying one another. He’s caught in the middle, sword still extended, as though he can hope to stop the power of their godly weapons with nothing but a single blow from an ordinary sword.

And that’s when he feels a sharp tug on his sleeve.

“Run, my lord!”

Victor recognizes the voice immediately, and obeys. Yuuri runs before him, blue scarf fluttering in the wind, steel shuriken clutched in each hand. Victor, too, hastily draws his sword, noting the enemies that pursue them.

“I can’t—” Victor pants, still clutching his sword, and raises his arm just in time to stop an axe from descending and cleaving Yuuri’s head in two. “How do we— get them to— stop fighting?”

Yuuri looks around, letting a shuriken fly as he surveys the battlefield.

“Their generals!” he says, pointing them both out to Victor. “If we can take them out, it might be enough to scatter their armies!”

And so together, they dispatch Yuri’s and Yuuko’s generals in short order, working hastily before their enemies can surround them. And his siblings’ looks of horror as he cements his betrayal…

…Well. It’s something he doesn’t think he’ll forget anytime soon.

Once he and Yuuri reach the tree line, it’s easier to disappear. They take shelter by a copse of trees in the forest, with Yuuri hastily binding his wounds while Victor gulps a healing concoction given to him by a kind Hoshidan shrine maiden back at the palace.

“You,” Yuuri says, teeth gritted in pain as he ties off the bandage around his arm, “are exceptionally foolish.”

“Thanks,” Victor says dryly, looking up from where he sits slumped against a tree. “Tell me another one.”

Yuuri shakes his head, angry. His dark hair is plastered to his forehead, damp from sweat as he catches his breath. Victor has to fight the urge to smooth the bangs back from Yuuri’s face, to embrace him in gratitude for his help. 

“You can’t fight both Hoshido _and_ Nohr on your own, my lord. What did you think? That you’d refuse to turn on your siblings and they’d immediately sign a treaty? The scope of this war, the lives it’s taken from both nations… you have no concept of it.”

The worst part is, Victor knows he’s right; King Shoma’s death, his and Yuuko’s brother—and his and Yuri’s brother Nikolai, too. There is still so much he doesn’t understand that it’s difficult to know where to begin in a quest for peace.

He’s about to ask Yuuri what he knows when the ninja grunts in pain, touching his ribs where a Hoshidan warrior had swung a club at him. All other thoughts fly out of Victor’s head.

“Are you…?”

“Bruised, I think. I’ll be fine.” He glares at Victor. “Lord Victor… I certainly hope you know what you’re getting into.”

He doesn’t. He knows what an idiot he’s being, but looking at the lumps Yuuri has taken for him, he can’t help but think he isn’t alone in his foolishness.

“And what about you?” Victor retorts rather than try to answer Yuuri’s question. “If I’m a fool, what does that make you for following me?”

“I would follow you anywhere,” Yuuri says immediately, “regardless of what a fool you are.”

That statement hangs in the air for a moment before a crimson blush stains Yuuri’s cheeks, as though only just realizing what he’d said.

Victor blinks. “Really. Even if I’d sided with Nohr?” He starts to sit up, eyes level with Yuuri’s. “You’d turn against your homeland? Your own sister?” The way Yuuri blinks and averts his eyes is answer enough that he would. “Why? It can’t be because of what an excellent shogi partner I am.”

Yuuri takes a long moment to answer.

“I… owe you a debt. I will follow you until it is repaid.” He glances at Victor before looking away again. “That is all.”

Victor shakes his head. “ _Why_?” he asks again, unable to comprehend this. “All because I wouldn’t execute you?” It doesn’t make sense. If Yuuri should owe anyone for sparing his life, it ought to be Yuri, not Victor.

Again, Yuuri does not answer.

“We should keep moving,” he says instead, hobbling slightly as he moves, keeping one hand pressed to his ribs. “We need to put more distance between us and our enemies, now we have so many of them.”

He walks off with a slow clumsiness that’s uncharacteristic of his usual swift, fluid movements, and it makes Victor’s gut seize with guilt.

“Take this,” he says, holding the glass bottle of medicine out toward Yuuri. “There’s one dose left. You need it more than I do.”

Yuuri shakes his head firmly, shoving it back at Victor. “You’re too important. I will not waste what could be used to save you later.”

“Don’t be an idiot! Look at you! You’re—“

“Lord Victor, I’ve finally found you!”

A rustling in the bushes to the side, and Victor reflexively puts himself between the voice and Yuuri, drawing his sword to protect them both.

But instead, a familiar face emerges, grinning at him, and Victor lowers his weapon.

“Chris!”

His faithful butler embraces him, exhaling with relief. “You’re a difficult man to find, milord. Tell me,” he continues as he takes in Yuuri’s disheveled appearance, “what sort of mischief have you gotten into without me, hmm?”

“I’ll tell you while we walk, Chris,” Victor says, turning to lead them deeper into the woods. “But first— do you think you can heal my friend?”

—

“Damn…” Chris whistles low. “You’ve made enemies of Hoshido _and_ Nohr in the space of an afternoon?”

It’s evening on the plains of Hoshido, and the three of them rest in the ruins of an abandoned fortress. Yuuri’s wounds have already fully healed by the magic of Chris’s staff, and he now keeps watch over the edge of a ruined wall as Victor and Chris catch up with everything that’s happened since they were separated at the border. Chris, as it turns out, has been searching for Victor since they were separated, looking for some sign of where he’d been taken.

“You know,” Chris says as he passes Victor a bit of rations from his pack, “when I told you to get out of the fortress and cause a bit of trouble, I meant a tavern brawl. Not involving yourself in a war that’s lasted the better part of our lives.”

“You should have made your meaning plainer, then,” Victor says, winking at his butler cheekily. He can’t help it; he’s too exhausted to treat this with the gravity it deserves, or to spend mental energy on working out a solution to his problem. It has been an incredibly long day, marked by uncountable skirmishes with members from both armies, and this is their first moment of peace in quite some time.

Perhaps Chris and Yuuri are right, and he’d made a mistake. Perhaps it isn’t too late to go back, offer parley with either Yuri or Yuuko and lend his strength to their side of the conflict. After all, he is but one man. What hope does he have of ending a war this enormous?

And yet… when Victor thinks about it, he cannot fathom raising his sword to cut down either his brother or his sister. He does not know if he could live with the knowledge that a choice he made resulted in the death of part of his family.

“You were right, Yuuri,” he says after some time, turning to look at the ninja at his perch.

It is perhaps all of Yuuri’s combined ninja training that keeps him from falling off the wall as he whips around to look at Victor. “I… what?”

“I don’t know anything.” He wipes sweat from his forehead. “I’ve spent most of my life sealed away in a fortress, away from all this. Maybe I’m naive to think that I could end this war on my own.”

Chris humphs quietly.

“It’s like Yakov used to say,” he says. “You’ve always had a kind heart. I just don’t want an act of kindness to be the death of you.”

“Maybe it will,” Victor concedes after a moment’s pause. “But if I’m kind, at least I’ll die without regrets.”

The three of them digest this statement, letting silence fall once more.

Yuuri is the one to break it. “You aren’t on your own, my lord.”

Victor swallows. “R-really?”

Yuuri hops off the wall, landing silently on his feet before Victor.

“I’m with you,” he says, bowing slightly at the waist. “No matter what happens, I believe in you, Lord Victor.” He straightens to look Victor in the eyes. “If anyone could accomplish the peace you seek… I believe you can.”

Victor smiles at Yuuri, unable to help the color from rising to his cheeks.

“Thank you, Yuuri. I’m… touched that you think so highly of me.”

Yuuri smiles back— and it strikes Victor that he’s never seen Yuuri smile before. He strikes Victor as a very reserved sort of person, but his smile… it makes him look five years younger. It’s bright, and warm, and Victor feels himself grow warmer the longer Yuuri smiles at him, returning it with one of his own.

Chris clears his throat with something of a hacking cough, making them both startle and look at him.

“Well,” he drawls, grinning widely at the both of them “Guess we haven’t exactly got anything to lose by trying.”

—

**Author's Note:**

> ( **Victor** and **Yuuri** attained support level **_C_**.)
> 
> \--
> 
> Right now the tentative chapter count is around 6, but that might go up. There's a lot of ground I want to cover in this fic and my outline still hasn't fully taken shape. I do, however, have most of the next chapter drafted already, so I'd look for that in a couple of weeks. Summer is about to start, which means I'm going to have a lot more time to write fic than I usually do. 
> 
> Feel free to say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://phoenixrei.tumblr.com) and yell about this fic! god knows i have been yelling about it on discord for like... a month.
> 
> Edit: I had art of ninja Yuuri commissioned for this fic! Check him out [here](http://kyyhky.tumblr.com/post/174870376855/yuuri-commission-for-phoenixrei-s-fire-emblem-au)!!!!


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